There are several reasons an author might choose to keep the parents in the background. A big one is that, in any novel, the main character should be the agent of change. In a YA novel, the main character is usually a young adult. That main character must make the important choices–whether they turn out to be wise or disastrous. An adult can’t come in and solve the problem for the character. Kids make dozens of independent decisions every day; it’s part of growing up. And people confide more often in their peers than in their parents. Just think: who were you more likely to tell when you had your first kiss, fought with the mean girl down the block, noticed a classmate cheating on a test, or first saw a friend using drugs–your parents or your best friend? Kids who go to school outside the home spend hours in a world with people and rules and customs and situations that aren’t a part of their parents’ lives.  They deal not only with the rules of the home but the rules of the classroom, the lunchroom, the school bus, the after-school job, the youth group, the locker room, the beach, the friend’s house, etc., etc.

Another reason is that not every kid has two involved parents.  I have at least two friends who lost their mothers at a young age; I had a close friend who rarely saw her divorced father.  The real world contains parents who have to work longer hours than they’d like, parents who are struggling with alcoholism or drug addiction, parents who live far away. And therefore, the fictional world does, too.

Which isn’t to say that parents must leave the stage altogether, that they are or should be absent from YA literature. I especially welcomed the presence of Ava’s parents in I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME (Lisa Schroeder), Grady’s parents in PARROTFISH (Ellen Wittlinger), and Miranda’s mom in LIFE AS WE KNEW IT (Susan Beth Pfeffer), among others.

In a few days, a variety of events for adults and children will commemorate Martin Luther King Day around the country. We will celebrate the accomplishments of this minister and civil rights leader, honor his commitment to nonviolent action, and, for many of us, follow his lead with a Day of Service to our communities. But while we think about this great man, we should also think about the millions of ordinary people—many of them young people—who also risked their lives and livelihoods to make real the vision that they and Dr. King shared.

Phillip Hoose’s Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2009), won the National Book Award in the Literature for Young People category this year. Hoose profiles the working-class Montgomery, Alabama, teenager who refused to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus nine months before Rosa Parks’s act of civil disobedience initiated the year-long boycott. Although Colvin was considered and then rejected as a symbol of resistance, her actions helped convinced Parks, the local NAACP secretary, to resist, as the adults in the community felt they could no longer remain on the sidelines while teenagers were risking their lives.

Three years before the publication of Hoose’s award-winning book, Amy Nathan found out that a New Jersey fifth grader, Krystal Hargrave, had interviewed her great-aunt, Sarah Keys Evans, about Aunt Sarah’s efforts to integrate interstate buses in 1952. In Take a Seat—Make a Stand: A Hero in the Family (iUniverse, 2006), Nathan uses Krystal’s school project, as well as the family pictures that accompanied it, to frame the story of Sarah Keys Evans. On leave from the army in New Jersey, Private Keys was en route to her parents’ house in North Carolina when she fell asleep on the bus, only to be awakened by policemen arresting her upon the bus’s crossing the Mason-Dixon Line. Outraged by this accidental encounter with Jim Crow segregation, Keys found a young African-American lawyer, Dovey Rountree, who took the case all the way to the Interstate Commerce Commission, which in 1955 prohibited racial segregation on all interstate buses and trains. While waiting for the verdict, Keys had the support of her friends in the Army. How could someone be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect the country, they asked, but be treated as a second-class citizen because of the color of her skin?

After more than a decade of slow progress in civil rights, many African Americans began to question Dr. King’s strategy of nonviolent activism. This was particularly true of young people in the 1960s, and Kekla Magoon’s 2009 novel The Rock and the River (Simon & Schuster) captures the generational divisions that emerged in the movement’s second decade. The novel goes beyond the simple nonviolence vs. violence dichotomy of public perception to Black Nationalism as a self-help movement with deep historic roots and that, in altered form, continues to the present day.

Without the passion of Claudette Colvin, Sarah Keys Evans, and the fictional teens of The Rock and the River, leaders like Dr. King and Mrs. Parks would not have had the encouragement and support to do what they did to make the United States a more equal and just nation.

Books on Young Activists in the Civil Rights Movement

Winner of the 2009 National Book Award, Hoose’s memoir/biography tells the story—in part in her own words—of 15-year-old Colvin’s refusal to move to the back of the bus and how her resistance contributed to Rosa Parks’s act of civil disobedience that touched off the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott.

The son of a prominent civil rights activist, 13-year-old Sam Childs is torn between his father’s commitment to nonviolent action and his older brother’s growing involvement with the Black Panthers in Chicago in 1968; this debut novel portrays the evolution of the civil rights struggle into Black Nationalism.

A New Jersey fifth grader discovers that her great-aunt played a major role in the desegregation of interstate buses in the early 1950s, and Nathan’s follow-up research documents the achievements of the youngster’s Aunt Sarah, Women’s Army Corps private Sarah Keys Evans.

Partridge describes the involvement of several children and teenagers in the 1965 civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama, including Bloody Sunday and the five-day march from Selma to Montgomery led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Three girls, ranging from seven to eleven years old, travel from Brooklyn to Oakland, where their estranged mother is now a Black Panther who enrolls them in a summer camp that teaches them pride, self-reliance—and revolution.

Being from down the bayou in south Louisiana, I have a great many regional tales to remember and retell during the holidays. My favorite is the story of Papa Noel, or Pere Noel, as he is sometimes called. The Cajun families who live along the Mississippi River anxiously await the arrival of their version of Santa Claus every Christmas Eve.

Somewhere back in time, no one knows exactly when, the legend of Papa Noel and the bonfires crept into the holiday traditions here. Basically, from the day after Thanksgiving right until Christmas Eve groups of men and boys (and today women and girls) have built teepee-shaped bonfires atop the levee that hems in the mighty river. On Christmas Eve, these fires are lit and a long party ensues on the levee – until it is time to put the children to bed or attend midnight mass. The legend goes that the only way Papa Noel will find the good children along the river is by following the path of the bonfires – which put out a strong beacon in the dark and the fog.

Our bonfires represent our own version of Rudolph’s red nose – which is important because in many of our tales Papa Noel is pulled in a pirogue by a clan of alligators – not reindeer. Two books that give us a Cajun Santa are the now classic Cajun Night Before Christmas by Trosclair and the newer Legend of Papa Noel by Terri Hoover Dunham. Both are wonderful picture books for the holiday season.

Here’s wishing each of you some magic in your own holiday traditions – and beautiful books to light the way for all your festivities.

I’ve always read widely and voraciously myself, although there are some genres that just don’t appeal to me. I will confess that my first encounters with verse novels went this way: I’d see an appealing cover or title, open the book, see the verse layout, shudder, and close the book.

The first verse novel I gave a fair chance was by Sonya Sones: One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies. How could you not like that title–heartbreak and gallows humor all in one line? The book lived up to the title; I found it engaging and absorbing. After that, I tried Lisa Schroeder’s I Heart You, You Haunt Me, the story of a girl haunted by her boyfriend’s ghost. And then Kelly Bingham’s Shark Girl, about a girl who survives a shark attack.

Now I have trouble remembering why I was reluctant to try a verse novel. I suppose I had some vague idea that they would be stuffy, or that a book constructed of poems would fail in the plot department. But as you can probably tell from the brief descriptions above, these books are anything but dry. A verse novel is also, foremost, a novel; it has just as much of a narrative arc as any prose novel. Verse novels are fast reads, too; I find myself turning pages quickly, and often finishing them in one sitting.

For these reasons, I think verse novels might be good for reluctant readers. The vivid imagery, extra white space, economy of language, and fast pace could be inviting to readers who shy away from dense blocks of prose.

Suggestions for other verse novels are welcome.

Note: All the books mentioned in this post are at the young adult (YA) level.

If you participated, you’re entitled to a bookmark, courtesy of me!  You do not have to have met your challenge goal. You just need to be at least 13 years old.  To claim your bookmark, email your info to jennifer[at]jenniferhubbard[dot]com. (Until Nov. 10, or while supplies last.)

The challenge was thus: read ten books between June 10 and September 21.  Ideally, the ten should include a book you’ve always wanted to reread; a book picked up just on impulse; a classic you always felt you should’ve read; a book from AuthorsNow!; a book outside your usual genres; and 5 others of your choosing.  But the main purpose was to read!

I originally planned to read HATE LIST (Jennifer Brown), BROWN (Richard Rodriguez), FLASH BURNOUT (L.K. Madigan), THE SCHWA WAS HERE (Neal Shusterman), INITIATION (Susan Fine), CRASH INTO ME (Albert Borris), RULES (Cynthia Lord), THE GRAPES OF WRATH (John Steinbeck), CHICKEN DANCE (Tammi Sauer), and of course one impulse book.

My impulse book ended up being EVEN THE STARS LOOK LONESOME, by Maya Angelou.  I read all of the above books on my list by Sept. 21, with two exceptions, which I’ll discuss below.  In addition to the books originally on my list, I ended up reading PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE (Cynthea Liu), MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD (Francisco X. Stork), BRALESS IN WONDERLAND (Debbie Reed Fischer), SURF MULES (G. Neri), GIVE UP THE GHOST (Megan Crewe), PEAK (Roland Smith), SHADOW CLUB (Neal Shusterman), WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN’T KNOW (Sonya Sones), VIOLET ON THE RUNWAY (Melissa Walker), ETERNAL (Cynthia Leitich Smith), SHINE, COCONUT MOON (Neesha Meminger), AFTER (Amy Efaw), and WHAT I MEANT (Marie Lamba).  I also got on a rereading kick: THE DUNGEON MASTER (William Dear), THE BEST OF EVERYTHING (Rona Jaffe), THE DHARMA BUMS (Jack Kerouac), THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (Lauren Weisberger), PLANT DREAMING DEEP (May Sarton), and JOURNAL OF A SOLITUDE (May Sarton).  From my total summer reading list, I suppose you can tell that my tastes range widely!

Now for the exceptions:  I didn’t actually get CHICKEN DANCE until after Sept. 21, but I have it now.  Also, I ended up substituting Elie Wiesel’s NIGHT for Steinbeck’s novel as my classic.  I did read the first chapter of GRAPES, but I wasn’t ready for it, or in the mood, or whatever.  There are books I love but have to be in the right mood for, which is just one more reason I support free-range reading.  And why there were no “musts” in this challenge, no demerits, no black marks–just suggestions.  That’s why everyone who participated gets a bookmark.  Whether you claim your bookmark or not, I hope you enjoyed the experience.

I’ve never wanted to be a model.  But it’s fun to imagine lives completely different from my own, to experience some glamour vicariously, and so I picked up BRALESS IN WONDERLAND (Debbie Reed Fischer) and VIOLET ON THE RUNWAY (Melissa Walker), both of which follow teenage girls who are unexpectedly whisked into the high-paced world of modeling.

For a totally different kind of adventure, I visited Everest with the main character of PEAK (Roland Smith), the story of a boy trying to climb the world’s highest mountain.

SURF MULES (G. Neri) swept me on a road trip with two teenage surfers who become drug mules.  SHADOW CLUB (Neal Shusterman) also explored the dark side of risky decisions, when a group of kids who have always been “second-best” take revenge on those who have stood in their way.

I turned back to lighter fare with Sonya Sones’s verse novel WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN’T KNOW.  GIVE UP THE GHOST (Megan Crewe) and PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE (Cynthea Liu) provided some ghostly shivers but were, overall, tales of the complications of friendship.  GIVE UP THE GHOST  is a YA novel about a girl whose gift for communicating with the dead turns out to both separate her from, and ultimately bring her closer to, the living.  The MG novel PARIS PAN explores the world of a girl struggling to fit in at her new neighborhood–which, in an extra twist, just might be haunted.

So I’ve already had quite a season.  And the summer isn’t over yet …

“I love all the DEL RIO BAY CLIQUE Books by Paula Chase Hyman…Paula does such a good job of describing high school life, Del Rio Bay could have easily been my high school. Her characters are so believable, I have friends a lot like all the members of the Clique. The book is funny and it teaches lessons, but it’s not preachy. You don’t even realize right away that you learned something, you just think: I loved this book/series!

SKIN I’M IN by Sharon G. Flake is a really good MG read. It’s sad and powerful. Deals with bullies and being ashamed of one’s skin (especially the issue of people wishing they were lighter, which is a story that needs to be told).

- Ari, book reviewer and blogger at READING IN COLOR

“When I was a child my favorite “school story” was actually a movie. The Trouble With Angels starring Hayley Mills. I was fascinated by the concept of a girl – a fish out of water – attending a boarding school and discovering that surface appearances didn’t tell the whole story. That and the fact that she had a best friend/partner in crime with which to terrorize the nuns and the Mother Superior. But what stuck with me was the ending – that the defiant, rebel rousing main character blossomed and came into her own and made a decision to join the Novitiate after graduation. I didn’t see it coming and because I didn’t, it made the ending more powerful. I was ready to sign up right then and there – and I wasn’t even Catholic.

Little did I know that years later, I’d be enrolled at Phillips Exeter Academy – a New England boarding school filled with similar adventures, two partners in crime and students from all over the world. I pulled equally wacky stunts, managed to avoid the usual punitive consequences, and had a blast – much to the consternation of the administration. In the end – I left a bit more mature than I went in and it has stuck with me all those years. Those years cemented my love of reading and writing. How could it not? Its graduates include Dan Brown, John Irving, Gore Vidal and Peter Benchley to name a few. I relived those memories when my daughter attended a summer program there last year. The smells, the joys, and the realization that if I had it to do all over again – I’d do it in a heartbeat. Only I’d be more like my daughter. She followed the rules meticulously and wreaked much less chaos as a result! Or maybe not – being the villain is a lot more fun!”

-Christine Taylor-Butler, author of SACRED MOUNTAIN, EVEREST

Do you have a longtime or recent ’school story’ favourite? Was there one that had a huge impact on your life? I’m always looking for a good one — recommend it in the comments below.

I read and enjoyed paranormal stories while I was growing up, and I still enjoy them.  But my favorite books were those about kids dealing not with supervillains, flying, or shape-shifting, but with the troubles my friends and I were more likely to face in our own lives.  I wanted characters who, like me, had no special powers or magic to rely on.

Fortunately, the tradition of contemporary realism in YA has continued with writers such as John Green, Sarah Dessen, and Laurie Halse Anderson (although her latest, Wintergirls, does contain a ghostly presence).  It’s no wonder.  There’s no shortage of material for writers in the world of contemporary realism: family troubles, friend troubles, bullying, unrequited crushes, mean teachers, illnesses, death, drugs and drinking, sex, pregnancy, peer pressure, talents and ambitions, first loves, breakups.  There’s humor as well as tragedy, mystery as well as raw honesty.

The crop of new 2009 YA books is rich with titles from the school of contemporary realism.  A few samples of books that are out now, or will be out this fall:

This Is What I Want to Tell You, Heather Duffy Stone: Sixteen-year-old twins Nadio and Noelle deal with changing friendships, family secrets, and first loves.

Waiting to Score, J.E. MacLeod: A high-school hockey star encounters problems both on and off the rink.

Twenty Boy Summer, Sarah Ockler: A story of friendship, grieving, and romance set in one unforgettable summer.

Breathing, Cheryl Renee Herbsman: A summer romance turns intense, and Savannah must balance her longing for her boyfriend with her own sense of self.

Willow, Julia Hoban: A girl uses cutting to cope with family tragedy, until she finds a new chance at hope.

Flash Burnout, L.K. Madigan: Sophomore and amateur photographer Blake has a girlfriend as well as a friend who’s a girl; his increasingly divided loyalties lead to trouble.

Hate List, Jennifer Brown: The story of the aftermath of a school shooting, told from the point of view of the shooter’s girlfriend.

March 23, 2009

In celebration of my first book’s release four days ago, we’ll read Before You Were Here, Mi Amor.  My son loves hearing about all the different things that family members did to prepare for a baby’s birth and reading the book has prompted interesting questions about things our family did in anticipation of my son’s arrival.  In this age of “Go, Diego, Go!” and “Dora the Explorer,” among other television shows incorporating Spanish and English, it’s amazing to realize how much Spanish vocabulary our children have easily absorbed.  As we review the Glossary, my son’s eyes light up, knowing he has impressed me with his growing vocabulary.  A child’s brain is most receptive to language at a young age.

March 24, 2009

Seattle experienced a surprise snowstorm on the 9^th of March.  On that day, we read the 1999 Caldecott Medal winner, Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin with remarkable, hand colored woodcuts by Mary Azarian.  After, we talked about Wilson Bentley and the fact that no two snowflakes are alike.  Today, we’ll read about another snowstorm and an irrepressible dressmaker’s daughter, Brave Irene in author-illustrator William Steig’s wonderful book.  My son always smiles when Irene’s tenacity is rewarded.

March 25, 2009

The middle of the week calls for reliable (please don’t imply dull) favorites. First, the lyrical, rhyming-counting book, Dinner at the Panda Palace by Stephanie Calmenson with hilarious animal guests à la illustrator Nadine Bernard Westcott.  Second, Agent A to Agent Z by author-illustrator Andy Rash because my son loves the hunt through the alphabet of spies, and I, in turn, enjoy a little “Get Smart”-toned humor.

March 26, 2009

We celebrate Women’s History Month in March and in honor thereof, we’ll read a book inspired by true facts:  Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride by Pam Muñoz Ryan with graphite and colored pencil illustrations by Brian Selznick.  Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and former aviatrix Amelia Earhart  (the first woman to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic (1932)) take to the sky in this book about two iconic, pioneering women.  An Author’s Note distinguishes fact from fiction and provides fascinating background information.  Rafael López, the illustrator of my second book, The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred (Charlesbridge, Fall 2010), created a brilliantly colorful landscape for Ryan’s Our California and I always enjoy reading her work.  I also like the idea of introducing Brian Selznick’s work now as I’ve saved a hardcover of Selznick’s uniquely illustrated chapter book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret for reading with my son when he’s older.

March 27, 2009

Give me a reason to read the rollicking, zany verse of Theodor Seuss Geisel (a/k/a “Dr. Seuss”) and I’ll gladly take it.  In belated celebration of Dr. Seuss’s 105th birthday, which took place March 2, 2009, we’ll devour some chocolate as we read our perennial favorites: Horton Hatches the Egg, The Sneetches (which imparts an important lesson about prejudice), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

March 28, 2009

Since we’re still layering to keep warm outside, we’ll read “What Will Little Bear Wear” from the collected stories of Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik with charming illustrations by Maurice Sendak.  When my younger sister was a child, she loved having my mother read these stories.  More than thirty years later, “Birthday Soup” and “What Will Little Bear Wear,” among others, continue to delight my son and me.

March 29, 2009

We’re always looking for a laugh to ward off Seattle-gray skies and The Moon Is La Luna: Silly Rhymes in English and Spanish by Jay M. Harris, illustrated by Matthew Cordell does just the trick.  The rhymes – with Spanish words included in the English text rhymes – are entertaining and easy for a beginning Spanish reader.  Cordell’s spare, simple illustrations are the perfect accent.

March 30, 2009

No week would be good for us without a book that has a focus on numbers – my son loves them.  Presently, that means 365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental with comical illustrations by Joëlle Jolivet.  365 Penguins delivers information about math and our environment in an amusing and innovative way.  We’ll also enjoy the exotic, miniature paintings in author-illustrator Demi’s One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale about a clever and resourceful village girl.  Last, we’ll read How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara, illustrated by G. Brian Karas.  This book combines math, science, and a lesson in kindness.  Karas’s illustrations depict a diverse class of students.  I discovered McNamara’s book after looking for other Karas-illustrated books, having become a fan of his work in Diane Stanley’s entertaining Saving Sweetness.

March 31, 2009

With a nod to April as National Poetry Month, we’ll read the work of two poets – one English and one American.  First, in belated honor of English poet Mary Howitt’s 210^th birthday (March 12, 1799), we’ll read Caldecott Honor book The Spider and the Fly featuring stunning paintings by Tony DiTerlizzi.  Second, a “realio, trulio” favorite in which two characters “chase[] lions down … stairs” – how appropriate to bid farewell to a lion-like March! – American poet Ogden Nash’s The Tale of Custard the Dragon featuring Belinda, Ink, Blink, Mustard, and Custard.

April 1, 2009

Welcome, April: may you be mild, SUNNY, and warm!

Diversity, yanno? Nope, I’m not talking about showing equal love for vampires, faeries, and humans (which I never could, because in that arena I’m 100% unapologetically biased… Edward… *swoon*… I mean…  *cough*… um, where were we?) Right. Diversity. That is, consciously seeking out a great read by an author whose race, culture, or ethnic background is different from my own.

If your book-buying (or borrowing) habits are anything like mine, you probably pick up a book based on a friend’s recommendation, or its cool cover (admit it!), or your previously established love for the author, or something that grabbed your attention in the flap copy. Or maybe something is on sale, like when Waldenbooks does it’s 3-for-2 deal. When that happens, I might even indulge in something *really* different from my usual picks. Like something with a dress or a pink shoe on the cover, or something about trolls with swords.

But the ethnicity of the writers who’d penned the stories in my to-be-read pile never really entered my mind until I hung out a while on author friend Carleen Brice’s White Readers Meet Black Authors, “your official invitation into the African American section of the bookstore.” Carleen’s informative, tongue-in-cheek blog focuses mostly on black writers, but it got me thinking about author diversity in general. When I did a quick inventory of my own shelves, I was disappointed to confirm what I already suspected — my books are shamefully lacking in the non-white author department.

Diverse Books: Sarah’s Current YA & MG List

1. THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN, Sherman Alexie
2. GIRL OVERBOARD, Justina Chen Headley
3. THE KAYLA CHRONICLES, Sherri Winston
4. A SINGLE SHARD, Linda Sue Park
5. WHALE RIDER, Witi Ihimaera

Five books by authors of color. Five, out of hundreds of books on my shelves. Pretty pathetic, huh? Well… I’m working on it. Doret Canton (a.k.a. The Happy Nappy Bookseller) sent me a copy of Dream Jordan’s HOT GIRL as part of a giveaway she hosted on Carleen’s blog, encouraging readers to support minority authors by buying a children’s or YA title by a black writer. I also got some help in today’s mailbox — an ARC of Cynthea Liu’s upcoming PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE. Now my diverse book list is up to 7.

Diversify Your Shelves

Take a look at your favorite YA and MG bookshelves. How diverse are they? If you’re white, how about checking out some Chinese or Native writers? If you’re black, have you read anything by Indian or Korean authors? No matter your race or ethnicity, I encourage you to try something new this month and pick up a book by an author of color — any color, as long as it’s not your own!

Not sure where to find books by writers of color? Here are some ideas to get you started:

• The Brown Bookshelf
• African American Children’s Books by The Happy Nappy Bookseller
• White Readers Meet Black Authors
• Check out some of the 2009 Debutantes, including Cynthea Liu (THE GREAT CALL OF CHINA and PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE), Neesha Meminger (SHINE, COCONUT MOON), Cindy Pon (SILVER PHOENIX: BEYOND THE KINGDOM OF XIA), and Malinda Lo (ASH)
• Browse books from my list of 5 above, and don’t forget Justina Chen Headley’s newest, NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL (I have to pick that up myself!)
• And finally, leave a comment for a chance to win my copy of Dream Jordan’s HOT GIRL! I’ll select a reader at random and send it over to you as soon as I’m finished, as long as you promise to blog about it when you’re done!

Already a Diverse Reader?

If you’ve already got some YA and MG faves by writers of color or suggestions on where we can find more books and blogs like the ones listed above, leave some love in the comments and let us know.

Happy reading, all!

~ Sarah Ockler, Author of TWENTY BOY SUMMER

So what if I started a Mother Son Book Club? Maybe that would be a good activity for when the teen-age years hit (in 1 year, 1 month, and 5 days). A quick trip to the land of  Google yielded little. I found one interview here:

http://litguides.com/2008/07/23/mother-son-book-club/

Just like in my regular book club, we could choose books that lead to excellent discussions about the nature of good and evil, difficult choices, and world history. 

I’m considering: Elijah of Buxton, The Golden Compass, Holes, and the Lightning Thief. 

Any other suggestions?